


From Ashes and Dust

by Scarlet66



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Ish?? - Freeform, M/M, Shameless Wish Fulfillment, crashes into fandom three years late with starbucks and headcanons absolutely no one asked for, i have a bias, if you think i am bitter about the ending you are entirely correct, mostly sasuke-centric, this is straight up fuckin corny is what it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-01-05 03:55:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12182409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarlet66/pseuds/Scarlet66
Summary: Rivers divided will once again meet in the ocean.Naruto and Sasuke get the ending they deserve and change the world, together. Not canon compliant after chapter 698 and parts of 699.(This isn't so much a fic as it is a violent word vomit of headcanons and plot points.)





	1. Ocean

**Author's Note:**

> apologies in advance if i get any details wrong; i couldn't bring myself to actually read all 700 chapters again lol

 

After blowing off each other’s arms like the morons they are, Naruto and Sasuke spend nearly a month in the hospital mostly recovering from severe chakra exhaustion. They end up in adjacent hospital rooms, and Sasuke wakes up first. Sakura walks in to check on him and nearly tears the door off its hinges to find he isn’t there.

Of course, he’s in Naruto’s room. No one told him where he was; he just found him on his own. As if reacting to his very presence, Naruto opens his eyes not even an hour later, and after that it becomes impossible to pry the two apart.

They talk, or at least they try to. It’s hard, at first, to actually say things. They have a kind of soul link now, and they know that they love each other and suffer for each other's pain — it’s ingrained in them so thoroughly at this point that everything else barely feels real by comparison. But it doesn’t automatically make the things that have been setting them at odds go away. Naruto still wants to be the leader of a system that doomed Sasuke’s entire family. Sasuke still wants to thoroughly demolish that same system.

Naruto still thinks of Konoha as home. Sasuke doesn’t.

The first few nights they almost rip each other’s throats out, because that’s all they know how to do. That's all they've ever done with feelings too massive to comprehend. Even then Sasuke never considers returning to his own room. Eventually they just sigh, and they stop.

So they talk.

Well, Naruto talks. Mostly about their classmates, and about the time he spent outside the village with Jiraiya. Sometimes about how much he missed his best friend. Sasuke rolls his eyes and snorts and hums in response. Their conversations gradually become less one sided, starting with Sasuke opening up about his very unpleasant time with Orochimaru. Once, and only once, does he admit that for the first six months or so he missed Konoha (Naruto) so viscerally he had dreams almost every night, until he started exhausting himself to such an extent during training that the memories would fall away for dreamless sleep to take its place.

When that stopped working, he just stopped sleeping for days at a time altogether. Even now he has trouble falling unconscious at night. 

He talks more after the sun sets. His voice falls quiet like he's wary of ears against the wall. Naruto would rip his other arm off with his teeth before he admits it but he really, really, really loves Sasuke’s voice, especially when it goes soft like that.

Talking doesn’t make the bad things go away, but it does make them feel a bit lighter. It gives them a common ground. They agree that they never want anyone to go through the things they did.

It gives them the chance to apologize, too.

Sasuke left to obtain power, yes, but he was also afraid. Naruto was changing him. He made him  _happy_. More than once Sasuke would have willingly — gladly — exchanged his life for Naruto's, and the thought of it sickened him and scared him. He couldn't allow himself that. He wasn't strong enough to be an avenger and a protector without sacrificing one for the other.

So he ran, and as he kept running he told himself he spared Naruto's life on a whim, when in reality he kneeled there in the mud for god only knows how long staring at his face and counting his breaths. After four years continuing on alone was easier than facing the feelings he put so much strength into dampening, and destroying the person who was most precious to him — the one thing Itachi couldn't do, even for Konoha's sake — meant he could erase any lingering possibility of causing himself that kind of agony again if he ever lost him. It meant he could finally follow in Itachi's footsteps. 

In the end he only regrets the things he did because of all the grief it caused Naruto. He's sorry he nearly killed his best friend out of sheer cowardice. 

Naruto apologizes for trying to stop Sasuke from going with Orochimaru without trying to understand _why_  he did it. He would have died if he had continued on that path, and that was enough of a reason for Naruto to drag him back kicking and screaming if he had to. It wasn't until their meeting in the Land of Iron that he realized he'd been bending and twisting his image of Sasuke until the other boy fit into the mold of the best friend he thought had to be rescued. But Sasuke's hatred wasn't something he could fix by simply bringing him home. It was a part of him, and he didn't need someone else to save him from it. What he needed was someone to shoulder the burden of that darkness with him — to be his anchor, to hold him back from letting himself be washed away by it.

Perhaps that's why Naruto thought the idea of them dying together was a good one. He was desperate enough that any course of action seemed better than the powerlessness he felt in the face of Sasuke's misery. 

He's sorry for that, too. Dying wouldn't have been "bearing the burden with him"; it would've been a cop out. It would've been admitting defeat to all the cruelty and unfairness of the universe. He should have told Sasuke he wanted to live with him instead, to stay by his side and help him change the world, help him save _himself_ , Konoha and everyone else be damned.

From now on, more than anything, that's what he wants — to live with him.

Sasuke lapses into silence for the rest of the night after Naruto tells him this. The next morning the first thing he says is, "I can't stay."

Not in  _this_  Konoha: the Konoha that destroyed his life, the Konoha that allows children with no families to waste away on their own. Naruto, for once, doesn’t argue. 

“I'm coming with you," he states, "and if you have any complaints you can talk to my fist, asshole.” Because really, what was he expecting? That Naruto would just let him leave, by himself, on some dumb journey of atonement — when he has nothing but maybe his rudeass personality to atone for — without kicking up a fuss?

Sasuke just huffs, "Usuratonkachi," and then he _smiles_ and it’s small and a bit tentative, but it’s real and it’s also the most beautiful thing Naruto has ever seen in his life. Which is pretty amazing since Sasuke himself is already pretty damn beautiful, have you _seen_ him?

So Naruto kisses him, a little, and half a beat later Sasuke kisses him back, presses against him, swallows every little noise he makes. Fingers comb through dark hair while another hand yanks at a shirt collar and they’re trying senselessly to pull each other closer and closer and —

— It's — new. They're not exactly gentle with each other, but they're hesitant. Clumsy. It feels like they're twelve years old all over again. Neither of them have ever been touched like this, but somehow it feels... safe. Comfortable.

And if they both cry a little afterwards out of sheer joy and relief nobody else has to know.

 

* * *

 

Before they leave Sasuke meets up with Taka, who were offered residence in Konoha should they ever need it. They very, very tentatively accepted, but only because Sasuke voluntarily returned. They know what Danzo did and there’s no way in hell they would touch Konoha with a fifty meter stick otherwise.

They decide to clean out the remainder of Orochimaru's bases, arrest anyone still helping him, and bring the test subjects back to Konoha for treatment. After that Suigetsu and Juugo decide to travel, fully enjoying the freedom they never had as lab rats. Sasuke is a bit worried about Juugo at first, until he learns that Shizune and Karin teamed up to make medicine for him to keep his bloodlust in check. They send him new batches via his bird friends when he needs it.

The two of them only keep in contact erratically, but at one point they decide to take an extended stay in Kiri. The Mizukage needs extra muscle to settle the remaining infighting in her village and the two of them were beginning to get restless from all the lack of violence.

Karin goes with them to keep them out of trouble initially, but sometimes she’s called back to Konoha to help out at the newly created Research and Development Department — her expertise as Orochimaru’s former subordinate is immensely useful. She may not have liked the idea of being part of the village at first, but she gradually warms up to the people there. A year or two later she gets her own headband. 

Now that Sasuke is no longer trying to maim everything in sight he has time to realize that discarding Karin to get to Danzo was a spectacularly dickish move that he only gave a half-assed apology for. He says sorry again, and this time he tries to inject at least some sincerity into it. Awkward romantic advances aside, all Karin ever did was help him and he turned around and spat on her efforts.

She jokingly tells him to give her a kiss if he’s so remorseful, but he looks her straight in the eye, then glances at his missing arm, and says, “I can’t.”

 _Obviously_ , Karin thinks, and she might not be in love with him anymore but she’s never felt so impossibly fond of him either.

Naruto and Karin have a super dramatic meeting, if only because Naruto spends the entire time all up in Karin’s business because wow she’s his cousin! She has Kushina’s hair colour!! Karin is a bit overwhelmed at first until it sinks in that she _still has family,_ and after that they sit down and pelt rapidfire questions at each other for a long while. 

Their combined volume is probably enough to break glass. Sasuke wonders if it's a familial trait.

 

* * *

 

Sasuke is quickly given a full pardon — not that Naruto would have allowed for any other outcome. The entire idea of _Konoha_ being the one to do the forgiving is ludicrous, but for now they grit their teeth and bear it. They leave the village after attending the mass memorial for the fallen.

Naruto takes his forehead protector off and stows it away in his bag after they pass the gates. "Uzumaki Naruto of Konoha is taking a break," he proclaims when Sasuke looks at him questioningly.

The purpose of their trip is threefold. 

First, to track down Orochimaru himself and throw him into jail permanently. Sasuke volunteers to kill him since he was the one who brought him back in the first place, but Naruto stops him. Not out of sympathy or anything — he just doesn’t want Sasuke to have to dirty his hands like that ever again. Besides, they don’t have to kill him. Even missing an arm each Orochimaru doesn’t stand a chance in hell against both of them.

The only time they return to Konoha in their time away is to deposit him in jail themselves, in the cell right next to Kabuto. Naruto is over the moon the whole way back, because he might be a saint when it comes to people who have hurt him but when it comes to people who have hurt Sasuke? Nah.

(He tells Sasuke this when he asks, and the latter just wrinkles his nose — which Naruto finds annoyingly cute — and calls him a moron. At this point Naruto’s seriously starting to think there’s something wrong with him — being called a moron should not be so unbelievably endearing.)

(And then Sasuke turns his head away, which may hide his face, but unfortunately for him Naruto can still see the red on the tips of his ears.)

(He doesn’t tell him that, of course.)

Second, to check out Danzo’s “vaults”. During their hospital stay Tsunade and Kakashi started their own investigation into the man. What they found were hints to ten locations outside of Konoha where Danzo has hidden his secrets: mission scrolls, forbidden jutsu, lost artifacts belonging to those that Root have wiped out, information on his allies. Tsunade picks up everything they find via her most trusted ANBU, which at this point amounts to Sai, Yamato and Kakashi — who is temporarily back for the sole purpose of fully dismantling Root. At some point Shikamaru is recruited as well to help organize these materials.

They end up with over four hundred mission scrolls alone — over four hundred unsanctioned and illegal missions dating back over four decades. These and the forbidden jutsu are set aside to be used as evidence later. The artifacts are returned to the proper people, or in some cases, the proper graves. Investigations into people whose names are mentioned or alluded to in relation to Danzo are conducted in secret. 

In one hideout are a number of the Uchiha clan’s eyes, perfectly preserved, most likely for Danzo’s arm. Naruto has to physically haul Sasuke out of the room to prevent him from setting fire to the whole place with his chakra alone.

He burns the eyes after taking them to the Uchiha’s hideout. Naruto tries to give him space; Sasuke is the one who reaches for his hand, albeit hesitantly. They stand and watch the smoke rise from the funeral pyre for hours.

And third, to see the world. To see how the shinobi system has adversely affected ninjas and civilians alike, and to see different governing systems outside of ninja villages and how they work, how they don’t work. Tsunade tried to keep Naruto in Konoha to train him for the Hokage position, but he didn’t want to learn about the world from behind a desk. He’s better at retaining information when it’s tangible to him. 

Sasuke devours every history book in every library they find. Given Naruto's distaste for book learning, he doesn’t try to force him to stay with him. Instead he summarizes everything neatly for him, going into unnecessary specifics only when Naruto asks, which is quite often when he's genuinely curious about something. 

Naruto loves talking to people, learning their life stories and helping with whatever he can. When they plan to stay somewhere for an extended period of time they always lend a hand with reconstruction and occasionally fighting off bandits who try to take advantage of the post-war chaos.

Sometimes, they can't help. All the physical strength and powerful jutsu in the universe can't generate enough food to feed hundreds of mouths, or undo the countless scars inflicted upon the earth by past battles where homes or farmland or treasured landmarks once stood. Neither a Rasengan nor a Chidori can give a grieving family or an orphaned child the love and closure they need. 

Sasuke doesn't know what he expected, but he certainly didn't think it would hurt. He'd spent so long closing himself off from everything but vengeance that now it's like a slap to the face — learning to care again. Realizing that he  _does_ care, for reform and revolution for more than just his and his family's sake. 

(This is now where he channels all of his rage, all of his hatred — into relentless motivation. Sasuke never does anything by halves.)

For Naruto, this only reinforces his resolve. He carries his predecessors' wishes for peace everywhere he goes. 

 

* * *

 

It’s a bit easier to talk when they’re away from the village, but it’s still ridiculously difficult to lay the past out in the open when they've buried it so deeply for so long. Not just for Sasuke; for all that Naruto loves to talk he never says anything about the things that cause him pain.

They start with their families: how they wish the people they loved would never leave, things they would tell them if it were possible. How it hurts to always be the one left behind. 

Naruto talks about his dad, how cool it was to meet him, how amazing and natural it was to fight side by side as if he hadn’t spent sixteen years of his life without a single clue as to who Namikaze Minato was. He talks about his mom, too, who was “absolutely  _beautiful_ , Sasuke, she had this really really pretty red hair and it was so long and she was an even bigger badass than dad! She beat up all of her bullies herself and she never let them put her down!!”

He wishes, desperately, that all three of them could’ve had even a few minutes together. He wonders if his childhood would have been any different if he or the villagers knew he was Minato and Kushina’s son.

He wonders if it’s fair that he had to fight so hard for so long to receive the kind of love any other kid would have had the moment they were born.

(It isn’t.)

It might be that hearing Naruto lay bare the most vulnerable parts of himself makes Sasuke feel obligated to return the favour. Whatever it is, it’s easier, after that, for him to talk about Itachi.

About how, as a child, he loved his older brother more than anything in the world. How after the massacre he clung onto his hatred with all the power he could muster because if he didn’t, he would have been crushed by disbelief and devastation instead.

And how, in a way, he still hates Itachi more than anything in the world.

Because he chose the village over his family; because he unleashed Tsukuyomi on a defenseless seven year old boy; because he emptied Sasuke out and turned him into a vessel that feared connection and attachment so much he filled himself with hatred instead; because after all he did to and for Sasuke he still left him alone with nothing but his fucked up notion of love, as if death is an appropriate atonement for all the years he manipulated him.

As if hurting the people you love is  _okay_  as long as you’re doing it out of love.

And yet. Despite everything he still loves and idolizes Itachi so much it _burns._  The logical part of his mind that tells him  _Itachi was fucked up, he wasn't a hero, look at what he did to you, he would have used Kotoamatsukami on you_ wages war against the part of him that screams  _he loved me and I loved him and he was the kindest and saddest man in the world and it was my fault my fault my fault_. There's a battle raging on in Sasuke's heart that he is powerless to stop; all he can do is hold his hand to his chest and watch helplessly as rivers of blood spills through his fingers. 

It's a meaningless dispute, in the end, because Itachi is still dead and Sasuke is still the one who dealt the finishing blow, and for what? He sacrificed everything to kill the man who gave up everything he ever loved except for him. He sacrificed the happiness he could have had — he sacrificed  _Naruto_  — for misplaced revenge. What kind of blind, foolish idiot did he have to be to allow himself to be toyed with to that extent?

And after all that he couldn't just _stop_. If he stopped he would have driven himself mad. If he kept going he would have driven himself mad. But someone had to pay, and if Sasuke had to join an organization of terrorists and rip his sanity to shreds in the process then so be it. Better to self-destruct while reducing this hateful, abhorrent world to ashes than doing so after letting crippling self-loathing catch up to him.

And then as if that wasn't enough, in tearing himself apart, he nearly took Naruto down with him. Sometimes when he’s having a particularly bad night he thinks he might deserve to succumb to the same end as his brother: killed by the person he loves most.

He doesn’t intend to say that last part out loud. He expects Naruto to punch him for it so he tilts his head forward, lets his hair fall over his face and stares at his lap.

Naruto just reaches forward and sweeps Sasuke's hair back over his forehead, forces him to look at him with the gentlest gesture imaginable.

"You know," he says, his voice low, "I loved the Third, and I loved the pervy sage. Still do. But sometimes I can't help asking — I know the old man cared about me, but did he just not care enough to let me know my parents didn't hate me and abandon me? Did Jiraiya never come back to the village for twelve years, even once, to see his own godson because he just couldn't be bothered?"

His fingers tremble a little against Sasuke's forehead as he continues. "I don't know. But I think —" he pauses to wet his lips — "I think it's possible to hate someone and love them at the same time. And you don't have to be sorry for that. It's just how you feel."

Sasuke is suffocating. Something inside of him, cracked and torn by his fight against Naruto at the Valley of the End, starts to fall apart once and for all.

"And as for the other thing — knowing you this won't sink in for a longass time, but I'll say it anyway — it wasn't your fault. None of it was your fault. You have nothing to be sorry for."

Naruto rubs his thumb against Sasuke's hairline, then moves his hand back to tuck his hair behind his ear. Sasuke almost reprimands himself for immediately leaning into the touch. 

 _Oh_ , he thinks as his heart clenches and his lungs expand. Oh, he doesn't want to live without this anymore.

“Just you wait," Naruto declares, eyes clear and beautiful and painfully earnest. "I’m going to make you the happiest man on earth, and unlike your dumbass brother I’m going to do it right.”

After a few seconds Sasuke reaches up and pulls Naruto’s hand in front of his eyes (Itachi’s eyes) as he squeezes them shut, and clutches his fingers like he’s proposing, like he’s asking for a promise he isn’t sure he has the right to ask for.

Like he’s holding onto a lifeline.

(Someday, when he maybe hates himself a little less, when he can be sure he'll be able to do it, he'll say the same words back to Naruto.)

 

* * *

 

Sasuke loves travelling almost as much as Naruto does, but doesn’t like sleeping outdoors. His insomnia worsens in open spaces where he’s vulnerable to attack. There are times when he'll spontaneously wake up in the middle of the night — assuming he's able to sleep in the first place — sword drawn and right eye fiery red, reacting to imaginary enemies.

When he does manage to fall unconscious, he tends to succumb to violent nightmares. Naruto listens to the pitch of his voice and watches fear twist his face, and learns when to step back and let him thrash and when to step in and hold him as tightly as he can.

It helps to stroke his forehead when he sobs Itachi’s name. Naruto's heart aches when he learns why.

A travelling monk they meet on the road teaches Sasuke how to meditate so he can "learn how to deal with the anger and unease simmering in his heart". He takes up the habit doubtfully at first, but after four nights in a row with little to no sleep he turns to it just to get a few minutes of shuteye, or the closest thing to it. It helps; it pushes back his insomnia and mellows his temper. He meditates for at least half an hour nearly every night. 

He’s not a morning person. At all. That doesn't change no matter how much sleep he gets. Naruto tries to wake him up once and almost  _dies._

<> <> <>

Naruto talks a lot. Nearly every second of their trip is filled with mindless chatter about mindless things, and Sasuke finds that he doesn’t mind. After three years of silence in Orochimaru’s caves Naruto’s voice is the auditory equivalent of sunlight.

When he stops talking, when they’re passing through a town filled to the brim with memories of his mentor-slash-godfather, physical contact is the best way to bring him back to reality as gently as possible.

Conversation isn't the only area in which they're opposites. Where Sasuke's body is honed to be still until the situation demands otherwise, Naruto is constantly in motion. He hops and skips and waves his arms as he walks, he kicks his feet when he sits, and he twitches and mumbles mostly unintelligible words even when he sleeps. It's almost dizzying to watch him, but Sasuke can't draw his eyes away.

Not surprisingly, Naruto is a morning person — but only after a good night's rest. 

His nightmares, as rare as they might be in comparison to Sasuke's, are mostly some variation of the latter leaving again. Even if it isn't his name he's crying out Sasuke always makes sure that his face is the first thing Naruto sees when he opens his eyes. Afterwards he leaves his hand on his lower back and waits for the other boy to come to him. He always does, eventually. He presses his ear against Sasuke’s chest and cries as Sasuke runs his hand through his hair, always uncharacteristically quiet.

That's another thing they've gotten better at — allowing themselves to cry in front of each other and knowing that the other won't judge them for it. 

Panic attacks are another thing entirely. They're loud and sudden and downright frightening, but Sasuke learns that it helps to have him close, so whenever it happens he sticks to Naruto like glue. When Naruto gasps and reaches for him in a blind panic Sasuke reaches for him back, kisses his eyelids and his cheeks and the bridge of his nose, murmurs reassurances in his ear — anything to make him feel even the tiniest bit less terrified. It demands more affection out of him than he's comfortable with, at least for the first few months, but he couldn't care less.

Naruto is mortified after the attacks pass. Sasuke might have believed them to be a humiliating sign of weakness, too, once upon a time, but not now, when it comes to Naruto. Never when it comes to Naruto. So he refutes it every time, quickly and absolutely. He's more than relieved to see the shame in Naruto's face lessen every time an attack happens. 

It means he's helping him for once, instead of harming him.

 

* * *

 

They stop in Kumo for a short while to finally settle things between Sasuke and A. Things are understandably tense as they stare each other down. Just as Naruto and B start to seriously worry they’re going to duke it out right there, A sighs and says, “Well the future Hokage isn’t gonna be very happy with me if I kill you, is he.”

Sasuke barely holds himself back from rolling his eyes. He does, however, apologize to B, much to A’s surprise. It surprises Sasuke a little too, that he was able to do it so easily and mean it. His pride is one thing he’s never been good at letting go of. Naruto and Karin were different; he knows them and cares about them. 

Later that day A tells Sasuke about the events preceding the Five Kage Summit in the Land of Iron, and he isn’t even fucking surprised anymore, but —

He gets back to the room they’re staying in looking absolutely _livid_ and for a second Naruto half-expects him to send him flying out the window, until Sasuke reaches forward and rests his hand on the side of his neck, right against his pulse, and bends forward until he's staring at the floor.

“If you pull that kind of shit again, Naruto, I swear I’ll —“

Naruto waits and waits but Sasuke doesn’t finish his sentence. He just kneels there, shaking.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers after a few moments, “and thank you.”

Because Naruto has his own pride, too, and he abandoned it without a second's hesitation. He laid it down before a man who had every ability and incentive to kill him right then and there for begging for the life of a wanted criminal.

Naruto just grins at him, hooks his arm around his back and pulls him forward so that Sasuke's head rests on his shoulder, and murmurs, “Anytime, asshole.”

 

* * *

 

Sometimes Sasuke lies awake at night thinking, “How the fuck did I get here, how the fuck do I have this.”

For the longest time he didn’t think he’d even reach adulthood. He was expecting to die with Itachi.

And he knows there are parts of him that rub people the wrong way. He's never given much of a fuck about what people think so he never let it bother him. It was what it was.

But he cried at the Valley of the End because he’d forgotten — forced himself to forget, because surely that's what he deserved — what it felt like, to be loved like that. To have someone wholeheartedly believe in you, believe that you are good and worthy of love and loyalty to that extent.

It felt like someone had opened up his lungs and swapped out all the air for sunlight. For a moment it chased every single fear of abandonment out of his mind. For the first time in years he allowed himself to  _want_.

Sasuke never cared about changing himself before, probably never even considered it a possibility — but maybe that was the moment he found a reason to try.

   

* * *

 

They still fight, sometimes over things like where to set up camp, other times over things like bureaucratic policy and whether or not to erase a particularly nasty band of thieves from this plane of existence. They both have very strong personalities of the extremely stubborn variety. Sasuke is also more prone to jealousy and possessiveness. It isn't so much that he thinks Naruto will leave him — those thoughts occupy more of his nightmares than his conscious mind — it's just that he doesn't want to share.

And when two people know each other as well as they do, it's much easier to hit where it hurts the most.

One time they walk around passively-aggressively bitching at each other for over six days. They go through multiple periods of pissed off silences, four physical fights, five verbal arguments complete with every expletive known to man, and two angry makeout sessions before they give it up.

It's all very unnecessarily dramatic. They both admit it was a shit week and neither of them can really recall what they were mad about in the first place. So they set rules: all dumbass pissing fights must be resolved within forty eight hours of the end of the first argument — no ignoring each other, no kissing in place of actual conversation, and only minimal punching allowed.

It gets better from there, sort of.

They spar and train a lot still. They have to figure out how to use jutsu independently sooner or later — they’re not always going to have the other’s hand to make seals with.

Sasuke has probably way too much fun experimenting with the Rinnegan. Of course, when he's casually throwing house-sized pieces of the landscape left and right with the power of his mind alone, Naruto can't just let that slide. His powers are awesome, too, dammit!

A mountain or two may or may not disappear on occasions when they get too excited but  _shush okay no one can prove anything._

(Also? Post-sparring sex is the best.)

 

* * *

 

If they're asked what it is they love about each other, their knee-jerk reaction would be to make a face like they've just been told to eat a cockroach, and scoff. But they won't deny it. 

If they're pressed, their mouths would twist. They'd shrug. Eventually they'll admit that they simply enjoy being around each other. Somehow, despite being opposites in almost every way, they fit. Somehow, their connection runs so deep a single glance is enough to share what would require others entire conversations. 

Maybe, if pressed, Sasuke would admit that he loves Naruto’s energy and charisma, his persistence, his cleverness and ability to come up with unconventional solutions to unconventional problems, his loud and unconditional kindness, his endless optimism, his willingness to carry the world on his back if it means taking the burden away from someone else.

Naruto would be a bit more open about how much he loves Sasuke’s cutthroat honesty, his practicality and single-minded perfectionism, his intelligence, how he never takes any shit from anybody, the small gestures he uses to express affection, his fierce and unwavering love for the few people he considers more important than the entire planet.

But some things are beyond the realm of words. 

Sasuke has never been talkative, but the way his head tilts in Naruto's general direction even when they're apart speaks volumes. A planet can't resist the gravitational pull of the star it orbits. 

Naruto would try, but struggle. Ultimately he'd tell you a story about two men withering away separately in the desert until someone scooped them up and dumped them together into an oasis as deep as the sea.

Some days it’s all so overwhelming it feels like they’re going to drown in each other.

 

* * *

 

Sasuke is the one who says it out loud first. He curls himself around Naruto's body and whispers it into the nape of his neck when he thinks he’s asleep.

He isn’t asleep. Sasuke finds that out when Naruto suddenly rolls over and latches onto him like a koala bear would wrap itself around a tree, and starts sobbing "I love you, love you" repeatedly into his collarbone.

 


	2. Tide

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *insert it's been 84 years gif here*
> 
> I'M SO FUCKING AWFUL I'M SORRY AGHA;SLKDFJS;DLKFGH;

 

Naruto learns that Sasuke has a certain way of stealing moments. He'll innocuously step into a room without cloaking his presence and all eyes will inevitably turn to him. Conversations including him will either accelerate or slow down to suit his pace. And more noticeably — to Naruto, anyway, because he's the only one who will ever, ever get to see this — he'll interrupt moments of intimacy, no matter how rushed or heated, and just stare.

He'll softly cup the side of Naruto's face and let his eyes —  both of them a gentle wine red, now that he's learned how to shut the Rinnegan off — roam slowly and patiently over it. And Naruto will be hopeless to do anything but stare back, unable to break this bubble that Sasuke has drawn up around them until he himself shatters it. 

He's memorizing him, Naruto realizes. As if this is temporary. As if he wants a keepsake in the event that they fall apart like everyone else in Sasuke's life. 

Naruto wants to say,  _I'm not going anywhere you bastard_. He wants to shout,  _I'm never leaving. I promise, I promise._  But talking about the past is hard enough. Talking about their future is another hurdle entirely. Neither of them are prone to procrastination, but it seems like anything pertaining to the subject of  _them_ will always be larger and more daunting than even the destruction of the world as they know it. Because it's  _them_. 

And then all of a sudden they're out of time. Four years after they leave Konoha, a messenger from Tsunade arrives with information about the remnants of Danzo's allies — who, as it turns out, are primarily Land of Fire nobles from whom the funding for Root originated. In return for information and money these people would receive “favours”: bodyguards, assassins, cleanup and assistance for a variety of crimes.

The thing with people like Danzo is that they are never isolated occurrences. They plant seeds in the shadows that spread, quickly and noiselessly, deep beneath the earth. They anchor themselves to the sprouts, and the sprouts overrun the garden. If they want Danzo's influence gone, they can't waste time uprooting each individual sapling. They have to burn down the entire forest. 

Corruption has always existed, and will always exist, whether people like Danzo are there to exploit it or not. It just so happens that the man's machinations make people like him easier to trace. So this is the plan, concocted by one Nara Shikamaru: plant evidence that implicates a dozen in the home of one, then plant further evidence in those dozen homes. Rinse and repeat, until the entire network has been covered. Spark a chain reaction with an initial accusation of embezzlement — one that the Daimyo is most likely to prioritize. Prepare trustworthy replacements. Bestow accidental deaths on untrustworthy candidates if strictly necessary.  

The operation is need to know. Their classmates — the so-called Konoha Eleven — have been let in on the plan, but even then they're stretched thin. It means they have to work quickly. It means Naruto and Sasuke will have to separate for the time being. 

Right before Sasuke departs — why is he always the one leaving, Naruto wonders — Naruto draws him into a kiss. His world narrows down to the press of Sasuke's lips, soft and slightly parted, against his. He wants to say,  _Promise me you'll come back._ His hand sweeps to the back of his neck, tangling in his hair, and he wants to say,  _I'll be waiting._  

He doesn't.

 

* * *

 

Four months later he meets up with Sakura and Ino in a town a week from the border. The two of them had been travelling westward, but separately, under the guise of setting up new clinics and training new doctors. At least, they call it a guise — Sakura and Ino are entirely serious about the endeavor. 

Their paths happened to intersect as Naruto was travelling north. They find each other in an old tavern mostly overrun by small critters and loud mercenaries, and as the night wears on the conversation steers toward the elephant not in the room. 

Yes, Naruto has heard from him. No, not often. They're on a mission they need to be on the down low for, jeez, Ino. No, he isn't out for Konoha's blood. He isn't like that anymore. Funny what spending time with someone who actually wants the best for him will do, huh?

Yes, Naruto misses him. If being with him was akin to drowning, then being apart from him is a breath of fresh air Naruto isn't sure he wants. 

But.

“I’m done chasing after him,” he tells them, “but it doesn’t mean I’m giving up on him, and it doesn’t mean I love him any less.”

Waiting, after all, is a battle in and of itself. 

 

* * *

 

It's done. Danzo's allies are incarcerated. Even the few who are able to buy their way out have either succumbed to untimely heart attacks or have vanished without a trace. 

When they get back to the village, the truth is revealed in its entirety. Every supporter Danzo had in the village, every single living soul who had even an inkling of the truth behind the Uchiha massacre, is indiscriminately ripped from power and thrown into prison right next to the likes of Orochimaru. 

Naturally, people are  _furious_. The major clans are particularly pissed about the Uchiha's annihilation. They were pillars of the village. They didn’t deserve to be alienated, cornered, and then slaughtered, and they sure as hell didn't deserve to succumb to that fate by the hands of one of their own. A  _thirteen year old boy_ , manipulated into murdering his own family.

Perhaps the hardest part to swallow is that Hiruzen  _knew._  The wisest, kindest man any Konoha shinobi of this generation has ever met knew about all of Danzo’s crimes and never raised a single accusatory finger against him. And therein lies the shame — of not being able to see it, of unknowingly enabling these injustices, even though a ninja’s entire business is seeing underneath the underneath. 

Secrecy and deception are fundamental parts of a shinobi's nature, yes, but this — is far beyond what is acceptable. 

As predicted, it derails the faith the villagers previously had in their “Will of Fire.” But also as predicted, it’s a combination of the fact that Root no longer exists, Naruto’s honesty and charisma, and his and Tsunade's promise to never allow another Danzo to happen again that keeps the village together.

So they do the only thing they can: they learn to trust and earn trust all over again, together. With one sole exception.

Naruto reaches out, and he asks,  _When?_

Sasuke replies,  _Not yet._

 

* * *

 

 _I need time to think_ , he says.  _I need to time to fully consider what it is that will make me happiest._

There's a little stutter in the last word, a little hitch in Sasuke's otherwise immaculate penmanship. As if thinking about his own happiness — about wanting it — is a foreign concept to him. And Naruto can’t find it in himself to object.

For eight months he listens to rumours on the wind about a man with dark hair and darker eyes. He helps refugees return to their homes and peacefully resolves feuds over territory in the process. He takes down criminals, exposing a human trafficking ring in the Land of Water before handing them over to the authorities. There is never any detailed mention of the man's fighting prowess. 

Somewhere along the way the man is joined by two other men: one with pale skin and a shark-toothed grin, the other large and imposing with forest creatures perched perpetually on his shoulder.

In that time Naruto visits other villages as a diplomatic envoy to maintain the fragile peace that was crafted as a result of the war. He studies economics and politics under a tutor appointed by Tsunade.

(When he complains about how  _she_  never had to do any of this before she became Hokage, she flicks him in the forehead and chastises him. "You want to be the greatest Hokage in history, don't you? You want to change the world, don't you? Do you think you'll be able to accomplish that if people think you're only capable of waving your powers around like some deranged idiot?")

He alternates dizzyingly between shelving Sasuke at the back of his mind and bringing him back to the forefront of it. Is the idiot remembering to eat and sleep at regular intervals? Has his hair gotten any longer? It was just past his shoulders when they parted ways. Naruto's own haircut now resembles a shorter version of Minato's. He thinks he might keep it like this forever. 

They exchange letters nearly every week, but it isn't the same. More and more often he catches Tsunade watching him with a crease between her brows, or Kakashi glancing at him above the pages of his books. "Is it just me or are you quieter these days?" they ask. 

"Is that weird?" Naruto retorts. 

It occurs to him that it  _is_  weird, for them. They haven't been around for the past five years. They haven't seen  _this_  Naruto — the one who doesn't feel the urge to overcompensate with extra volume when he isn't at his best and brightest. Only Sasuke has seen that Naruto. If it's possible, Naruto thinks he misses him even more viscerally now than he did as a teenager. 

He understands perfectly why Tsunade and Kakashi are worried. Naruto has wanted things all his life: a family, friends, recognition, strength. Love. He's spent the last nine or so years wanting and wanting Sasuke to come back to Konoha. 

(To come back to him.)

He's fought tooth and nail for it. He's lost an arm for it. He's poured his entire heart and then some into it. And he'd do it all again, because he  _wants_.

But that isn't fair to Sasuke. Staying in Konoha while Sasuke wanders the world without him is quite easily one of the hardest things Naruto has ever done, but it's also the right thing to do. It's hard, but it doesn't hurt the same way it used to, and it doesn't leave him gasping and crying at night like it used to, so Naruto can live with it. Adapting to difficult situations is what he's good at. 

If Sasuke decides that this — letters and maybe the occasional visit — is what he wants from now on, then Naruto will live with that, too.

 

* * *

 

 _I think you should have a home_ , Naruto once said to him.  _A place_ _where you can rest and let your guard down. God knows you have a shitty habit of running yourself ragged when no one's looking._

But Konoha isn't home anymore. It hasn't been home for fifteen years. Regardless of whatever consequences his family's murderers now have to face, going back would be roughly equivalent to offering Sasuke's own beating heart on a silver platter and trusting Konoha not to kick it away. 

Sasuke doesn't mind travelling. He did it occasionally with Orochimaru, but sightseeing was never on the agenda. Now he has time to stop, so he does. He flies through dark, misty forests and encounters at least a dozen different creatures he's never seen in any book. He runs across vast grasslands with the wind constantly whispering at his back. The desert is unpleasant and unforgiving but crossing it feels like some kind of accomplishment, especially when he catches the shinobi of Suna glance at him with grudging respect. He's seen lightning storms that put his own Kirin to shame, daring him to reach out to touch and channel such a massive amount of concentrated destructive power only if he's brave enough and foolish enough. The ocean is beautiful, calm and inviting on the best days, and a roaring vengeful tempest on the worst. It dwarfs Susanoo and it makes Sasuke feel like a grain of sand on the beach, and never before has the knowledge that he is insignificant drawn reassurance rather than fright and indignation out of him. 

It's... strange — moving without direction. Forging on without a goal, an end, in sight.

He doesn't go out of his way to avoid villages anymore. People are kind to him. He offers whatever meager help he can, and they give him cheap lodging and more food than he can carry. They can tell he's shinobi more often than not, and then they smile at him and talk with him like he isn't a human weapon. Some of them find out who he is, and some of them don't. None of them care.

In one town he accidentally walks into a hostage situation and walks out of it with a weeping, uninjured child and five unconscious bandits. The mayor offers him his spare room, his bath, and a feast. Everyone else offers to fix and wash his clothes and refuses to take his money.

That night Sasuke lies in a warm, clean bed and nearly chokes on his own tears. 

He isn't with Naruto right now. They're not doing this for Naruto. They're doing this for  _him_. 

What an idiot, he thinks. What a narrow-minded idiot, to have ignored all this for hatred and vengeance.

 

* * *

 

He doesn't mind travelling. But something is missing.

The feeling only becomes more prominent after he meets up with Suigetsu and Juugo. It's an itch he can't scratch, and the two of them are familiar enough with his moods to not only notice that something's off, but also call him out on it. 

He isn't lonely. Piss off, Suigetsu. He isn't. He  _isn't_.

He finds his answer when they bring him to Kiri. He's never gone there himself but he remembers it was once Zabuza's home, and he also knows the circumstances that drove him out. So it's with great surprise that he walks into the village and sees... not blood-spattered, torn up streets, but an untouched and pristine central market. The buildings are spotless. The people are relaxed and content. None of their body language suggests any of the bloody history that created Zabuza. 

"The Fifth Mizukage isn't all that bad," Juugo informs him quietly. Sasuke believes him. 

And that's it, isn't it? Villages are beholden to their Kage. The Konoha of fifteen years ago was bound to Shimura Danzo and Sarutobi Hiruzen. 

Danzo and Hiruzen are both dead. Konoha belongs to Tsunade. Soon it will be Naruto's. 

Sasuke comes to think he's matured quite a bit, because it's with no self-denial and only a minimal amount of resignation that he realizes he's completely alright with placing his heart in Naruto's hands. 

 

* * *

 

One day Naruto feels a chakra as familiar to him as his own approach the village, the feel of it igniting something in his chest. He camps out a little ways away from the gate, and waits for Sasuke to come to him.

After Naruto finally catches sight of him in the distance he locks down his limbs, forces himself to stay where he is. He pulls air into his lungs to steady the skip of his heart. It feels like he's welcoming the tide back to shore. 

Sasuke is different. Calmer. Five years ago his chakra was lightning and embers crackling at his fingertips; now it thrums like the current of a river beneath his skin. Naruto wonders if the transition happened during these fifteen or so months, or if it was an even more gradual process he wasn't able to see because they lived and breathed as essentially one being for the four years before that. 

His hair falls down to his chest now. Some of it is tied up in a tail at the nape of his neck, curling over his shoulder, while some of it still sticks up in that dumb duckbutt of his, too short to be tied down. 

When he stops in front of Naruto with a tired but genuine smile on his face, Naruto beams back at him and walks him into the village. He doesn’t drag him or push him. They walk side by side, a hair’s distance between them, while Naruto blabbers on as if they hadn't spent over four hundred and fifty days apart.

People stare when they recognize who he's with, but they're easily ignored. 

Naruto guides them toward the section of the Uchiha clan’s lands closest to the rest of the village. A shrine, simple but elegant, has been built there. Beside it stands a stone monument just taller than Naruto on which a list of names has been engraved. Itachi’s name is listed last — a victim like the rest of his family. 

Tsunade had the idea to make the two structures bigger and a bit more lavish, but Naruto refused. Sasuke wouldn't care for empty offerings dressed up in expensive decorations. And this is only the first step.  

The man in question stares and stares, and when his eyes finally turn to Naruto, the latter digs his hand into his pocket and brings out the thing he's been carrying around with him for years. 

Sasuke's old forehead protector.

Its owner reaches for it, slowly, a somewhat dazed expression on his face. When Naruto places it into his hand, Sasuke traces his thumb over the scratch across the middle.

Of course Naruto kept it. He's been thinking about giving it back since Kakashi-sensei placed it in front of him on his hospital bed. He wanted to give it back the moment Sasuke came home. 

And now, nine years later, Naruto pulls him into a hug and whispers to him,

“Welcome home.”

 

* * *

 

To Sasuke's surprise, people regularly visit the new shrine to leave prayers and pay their respects. It doesn’t bring his family back. It doesn't ease his nightmares. It doesn’t erase even a fraction of the pain of losing them. He still can’t forgive the fact that it happened.

But the first time he sees violets and dango sitting beneath Itachi’s name is also the first time any reminder of his family brings him not anger or grief, but peace. 

 

* * *

 

Sasuke converts the old Uchiha compound, which was never rebuilt after Pain’s attack, into an orphanage.

"Are you sure?" Tsunade asks. She may not be on friendly terms with the boy just yet but she has more than a little sympathy for him, and she can see what this means for him. The estate may be a physical manifestation of the persecution his family suffered, but it was still his home.  

Sasuke waves her off. It takes month after month of paperwork, physical labour, and sleepless nights, but construction steadily moves forward. Sasuke all but tears down and rebuilds the entire compound with his bare hands.

After renovations are finished the place fills up quickly. Needless to say, the compound is a lot more spacious than the dingy apartments the kids had to live in before. Sasuke doesn't work there full time, but his name is listed on the official paperwork as the orphanage's director. He and Naruto visit as often as humanly possible with as many presents as they can afford — which is a lot, considering one of them just formally inherited his entire clan's assets and the other had a surprisingly rich godfather. It kind of feels like they’ve adopted dozens of children.

For the first time in fifteen years, Sasuke looks at his childhood home and thinks not of emptiness and death, but of renewed life. And he built this.  _He_  did. All this, even though up until a few years ago he was utterly convinced his hands would never be capable of anything but destruction. 

(Naruto couldn't be prouder or happier if he tried.)

Tsunade establishes a foster care system in conjunction with the new orphanage, helping the kids find suitable homes. Iruka, despite already losing hair trying to shift the Ninja Academy's teachings away from the glorification of war and violence as its new headmaster, is her second in this endeavor. 

 

* * *

 

It’s Naruto’s idea for Team Seven to get together every once in a while.

But it’s awkward.

Sooo awkward.

It’s definitely Sasuke and Kakashi’s fault. Together they are exponentially more emotionally constipated than they are apart. But since taking everyone by surprise constantly is Kakashi’s MO, he’s the one who says says sorry first.

Maybe if he had observed Sasuke more closely, maybe if he hadn't outright condemned his revenge, maybe if he had tried to understand him better, he could have convinced him to stay. He was his teacher, and that should have been his responsibility — not Naruto's.

And another way in which he failed as a teacher: trying to keep Danzo’s involvement in the Uchiha massacre a secret when he first learned about it, and not doing a single damn thing about it. Prioritizing the status quo of his village above his student's pain, even if the chaos brought about by such a revelation would have been detrimental in a time so close to war. 

“So much for placing my teammates before the mission, huh,” he says, the trace amounts of bitterness in his voice entirely self-directed.

Sasuke is so flabbergasted — since when does _Kakashi_ do _apologies? —_ he blurts out “Sorry for dropping you in lava,” which isn’t even really what happened. Kakashi just snorts and messes up his hair. For some reason Sasuke lets him. 

And Kakashi is grateful, because he should have known better. He should have. He and his former student both know what it feels like to lose everyone they ever loved — they both know that that kind of grief  _lasts_. It's all-consuming, it's corrosive, and it isn't the kind of thing that can simply be locked away on command. And that's what Kakashi was asking him to do by telling him to forget about revenge, whether it was right or not. He was asking him to give up and let the world walk all over him.

That was Kakashi's choice, because he was old and broken and so, so tired of losing and losing and losing. But Sasuke wasn't him. Sasuke was a storm, a raging inferno, and Kakashi shouldn't have tried to force his own way of life on the boy for something so cowardly.

So no, things aren’t totally okay. But knowing Naruto they’re going to have plenty of time to get better at making amends.

<> <> <>

Perspective, Sakura thinks, is great for inducing life-changing epiphanies. The first few times Team Seven meets up after Sasuke returns, Sakura can't help but feel like an outsider. 

Which is surprisingly... fine. She likes to think she's grown up a bit in these past five years. Again, perspective. 

She was self-absorbed; she can see that now. She was hellbent on putting things back the way they were before, back when they were Team Seven, three hopeless kids shoving their jagged edges in each other's faces and calling themselves a unit. Being part of the team meant she was recognized by the boy she thought she loved, and so she was obsessed with it. 

But they were never a team. If only she'd pulled her head out of her ass, she would easily have seen that Sasuke would never have come back with her, or for her. She could be the strongest woman in the world and she still wouldn't be able to stand beside him.

There's only ever been one person who could fill those shoes. In hindsight it was obvious, from how Sasuke always looked at Naruto before he left when they were twelve, how he looked at him even when they were standing on opposite sides of the battlefield, rivers divided, eyes only ever trained on him and him alone. It’s even more obvious now. Painfully so.

Faith. Pride.  _Warmth._

Sakura wouldn’t be able to see it if she didn’t know where to look. It occurs to her that until now, no one besides Naruto has ever even  _thought_  to look. And she thinks,  _Oh_ _._

Sakura thinks about it for nights and nights on end, until she finally picks up the courage to find Sasuke at Naruto’s apartment. She stares into the cup of tea he makes for her for a minute, then two, then three, before she raises her head and apologizes. Not for caring about him, but for caring about him for selfish reasons. For claiming she loved him despite never understanding a single thing about him, for giving up on him, for trying to get him to come home for her own sake rather than his.

"I was never in love with you." Her fingers grip the edge of her seat, but she takes care not to splinter the wood. "I was infatuated with the idea of you. Of being the one to get through to you. I'm sorry for pushing that on you. It wasn't fair."

The best thing Sasuke ever did for her was leave her behind without a backward glance over five years ago. Five years later, she's finally gotten to a place where her self-worth is no longer tied to him. To the distance between them. She'll never be his one and only, and she's fine with it. She's glad for it. 

When she’s finished her eyes sting a little but are completely dry.

Sasuke looks down at the table, looks back up, shakes his head and says, “I’m sorry, too. For being so cruel.”

Sakura's eyes widen. When she tried to envision Sasuke's response while tossing and turning in bed the previous night she mostly drew a blank. This... isn't what she would have expected. 

"I guess —" she starts, then stops. She tries again. "Can we start over? As friends, this time. I promise I'm not as annoying when I'm not being a clingy lovestruck idiot."

She can swear there's a tiny hint of a smile on Sasuke's face, but it's there and gone before she can verify it.

"I'd like that," he agrees quietly. 

 

* * *

 

Sasuke slowly reintegrates into Konoha, a process helped along by his former classmates. He doesn’t know how to feel about this; he barely cared about any of these people before and now he... might... be starting to.

It’s how he ends up apologizing to Chouji, and then to Shikamaru, and then to Kiba, and then to Neji’s grave, for almost getting them all killed when he left years ago. They are all very, very drunk when it happens. Chouji is kind, pure and simple, so he was barely angry at him in the first place. Kiba has never really liked Sasuke but he’s also an incurable softie, so the drunken, hiccupy apology raises his opinion of him pretty much instantly.

Shikamaru is the one who holds grudges, more for Chouji’s sake than his own, but in the end he just kind of shrugs and then proceeds to get absolutely plastered. The next morning, instead of just nodding at Sasuke like usual he full on bitches at him about his hangover, so Sasuke figures they’re good.

(It's because of Asuma. Shikamaru isn’t enough of a hypocrite to blame Sasuke for going off the rails a bit while seeking revenge for his whole family when Shikamaru nearly lost his mind doing the same for just one person.)

Even with help, getting people to like, or at least get used to, Sasuke is a slow and often arduous process. Mostly due to the fact that Sasuke is still a bit of a dick. It’s just his personality.

(Although, for some reason, he is surprisingly kind to civilians.)

Naruto swears he’s working on it, seriously. And he is, in a way. He plays shougi with Shikamaru and demands rematches when he loses. He talks about poisons with Sakura and weapons with Tenten. He sneaks Akamaru treats when he thinks no one is looking, and running laps around the village with Lee becomes a weekly occurrence. When Ino pokes fun at Naruto's ridiculous bedhead one day and Sasuke joins in, they fall naturally into a habit of sassing and snarking at people together. 

Hinata accidentally confides in him about the problems within her clan, and he snaps at her to grow a spine — if she's so worried why doesn't she  _do_  something about it? The next time they see each other she stands a little taller and doesn't avert her gaze. Sasuke just leans his shoulder against the wall they're standing next to, crosses his arms, and asks if her stubborn clan elders have keeled over yet. She was, after all, one of the people who publicly condemned the annihilation of his clan. 

Sasuke is also very charismatic in his own way. He’s a pretty damn good ninja, for one, which automatically gives him some measure of respect. People gather around whenever he fights — his movements are beautiful, all lethal grace and sharp precision, something you can clearly see in his swordplay. It’s a fascinating contrast against Naruto’s seemingly haphazard, on-the-fly style that depends more on hard-hitting attacks and clever tactics.

Their fights are super fun to watch, especially when they only use taijutsu. They're trying to get used to having two arms each again so there's some residual clumsiness in their movements, but even so one can swear they’re reading each other’s minds with the way their blows almost never land, only ever blocked or parried or dodged.

At least, it’s entertaining as long as you maintain a safe distance, because next thing you know a seventy meter tall tengu is spitting fire at a seventy meter tall fox, and then the Fifth Hokage herself is raining fury down upon everyone. “ _For fuck's sake yo_ _u two_ ," she'll growl, "we just fucking rebuilt this part of the village, keep yourself and your boyfriend  _in line_.”

It also helps that spending time around people who aren’t out to ruin his life is beginning to soften Sasuke up. His face is becoming less unreadable, less hostile-looking, and he must  _never know_  or else he might close it up again out of sheer embarrassment. As it turns out he's quite nice to look at when he isn't trying to eviscerate you with his eyes. 

He and Naruto also get a cat. Naruto dares anyone who has seen Sasuke with a cat to continue hating him. 

Obviously, no one takes that bet.

 

* * *

 

Everyone who knows Naruto and Sasuke would have bet a whole year's worth of D rank missions against them being  _that_  couple. That couple who are so utterly, disgustingly  _into_  each other that just being within a five meter radius of them guarantees the feeling that you're intruding on something you have no business seeing. 

(That's maybe a little dramatic.)

They're not big on public displays of physical affection. Naruto is very touchy feely, but he's like that with almost everyone. As for Sasuke — every time Naruto so much as puckers his lips at him where people can see he immediately pushes his face away. Into the nearest available flat surface, if possible. 

So they're not  _embarrassing_ , but they're still... embarrassing. It's the they-light-up-whenever-the-other-person-walks-into-the-room kind of embarrassing. The kind where they lean toward each other regardless of where they're standing like they're not even aware they're doing it. The kind where, when Naruto dives face first into a bowl of ramen and resurfaces with broth on his cheek, Sasuke just grimaces, mutters "dumbass" under his breath, and reaches over to casually wipe it off with his sleeve. 

Sasuke, otherwise (humorously) known by close associates as Mr. Anal-Retentive-Neat-Freak-When-He-Isn't-Slamming-You-Into-The-Dirt, not caring about sticky noodle water on his clothing. 

There is no indignant squawking on Naruto's part or anything either. It's almost as if this... this  _domesticity_  is  _normal_  for them. Or something. Judging by the fact that Sasuke has to regularly march into the Hokage tower to drop a lunchbox and a "Make your own damn food for once idiot, this is the last fucking time, I swear to god" on Naruto's head, it actually might be. 

(It's a heavy lunchbox, enough to probably cave a man's skull in if Sasuke wanted to. Healthy, too, to an extent that his disapproval of Naruto's eating habits practically radiates off the vegetables they grow in their damn garden.)

(Chouji catches a glimpse once before promptly going, "Holy  _shit_. How do I get Sasuke to make me lunch too?")

Perhaps the most unexpected thing is that the two of them didn't crash and burn within a week of moving in together. Or maybe it's that whenever they do fight, it's as often Naruto's fault as it is Sasuke's. It might be that Sasuke seems genuinely content to be living in Konoha, and that his presence here makes Naruto so many thousands of times happier than anyone has ever seen him. 

Whatever it is, their relationship is enough to fuel eighty percent of Konoha's gossip mill all by itself for quite a while. People don't really have anything better to do during peacetime. 

 

* * *

 

Naruto's eyes dim whenever his birthday comes around. It's a lot more noticeable in Konoha — or at least, it is to Sasuke.

He isn't the only one who has a penchant for hiding his feelings from the public eye. 

Apparently ascending to the status of legendary hero comes hand in hand with huge festivities thrown in your honour. Their first October back in the village is chaos. Throughout the night of the tenth Naruto is dragged all over the city as his smile grows unnaturally wider, more and more strained. At some point Sasuke tosses his hands up and basically drags him home by the roots of his hair. 

"I'm fine, bastard," Naruto insists. Sasuke just snorts. 

"I'm fine," Naruto repeats, weaker this time. 

The day he came into the world is the day his parents left it. That is a fact. Irrefutable and unalterable. 

Then why is it so hard to accept?

Sasuke doesn't say anything. There's nothing he  _can_  say — Naruto already knows how much his parents loved him. How proud of him they were. He knows they don't regret giving birth to him for a single nanosecond, even if it provided Obito the opportunity to unleash Kurama. And it's not like Sasuke could climb inside Naruto's head and pry these thoughts out of it, as much as he might want to. 

Instead he shuts off every light in the apartment except for a single lamp, puts on his reading glasses, pulls Naruto down on top of him on the couch. He drapes a heavy blanket over them both, and reads to him. 

If he can't physically beat Naruto's darkness back with a stick, maybe stories of heroes and friendship and drama will keep it at bay.

Sasuke's body temperature has always run a bit hot. Probably because of the Uchiha clan's natural affinity for fire, or something. Every tenth of October, as Naruto falls asleep cocooned in the warmth of Sasuke's voice and Sasuke's body, he's grateful for it. 

 

* * *

 

Someone (by the name of Sakura) suggests that Naruto and Sasuke take the Chuunin Exams again, because it's hilarious that the two people who saved the planet from eternal purgatory via lunar genjutsu are still technically genin. Thankfully Tsunade does not want a diplomatic apocalypse on her hands as a result of pitting children up against two of the ninjas who  _killed god_.

So finally, Naruto and Sasuke become the last among their friends to be field-promoted to jounin. 

And then they get  _genin teams_. 

It’s a fucking disaster. Naruto has way too much fun. Sasuke pretends he isn't simultaneously very chuffed and completely freaked out that these young impressionable creatures faithfully follow him around like ducklings. Kakashi sits in a tree reading porn and ridiculing them when he isn’t busy.

These two idiots have absolutely no concept of training at a reasonable pace. They pit their teams against each other for bragging rights. They destroy an average of six training grounds per month. The kids run to Sakura at the hospital every week to get treatment and to complain about their disgustingly affectionate teachers: “Please PLEASE Sakura-sensei you gotta help us, Naruto-sensei and Sasuke-sensei are doing their weird fight-flirting thing again and it’s  _super duper gross aghhhh_."

The two of them are scary protective, too. It would be endearing if it didn't always turn into so much collateral damage. 

Naruto and Sasuke's friends, especially those whose genin teams are periodically victimized by these little hellions, watch in fascinated horror as these six preteens grow up to be nearly as terrible as their teachers. 

In the end Shikamaru neatly and very dryly sums it up in the way that only Shikamaru can: "It's like watching the blind leading the slightly more blind." 

 

* * *

 

Naruto helps Hinata rewrite the traditions of her clan. They ensure that no Hyuga child is ever branded again, and over time the wall erected between the main and branch families is taken down brick by brick.

The only thing Naruto really does is persuade Hiashi and the clan elders to let Hinata become the heiress instead of Hanabi. She's been preparing for this day. Hesitation is still a weight on her back, but she knows she can’t let her family continue the way it has, and although her father has become more lenient he’s still a man of a previous era and he still exerts far too much influence on her younger sister.

When she needs to stand firm, she reminds herself that Neji died inadvertently following the tradition of their clan despite spending most of his life staunchly opposing it, because he cared about her and believed in her. That is something she never wants to happen again.

She builds upon her physical abilities by training with Lee, Sakura, Kiba and Akamaru, and, surprisingly enough, Sasuke — but only to give herself some extra confidence. She doesn't want to rely only on violence to do right by her family and her village. 

 

* * *

 

Psychological health clinics are opened in every major hospital in Konoha with Tsunade’s recommendation and guidance. At first the priority is to undo the brainwashing on former members of Root. After that the program turns its attention to the rest of the village, and then the rest of the world at large. Every shinobi could do with some healing, and the mind is a good place to start. 

(Sakura has to manhandle both Naruto and Sasuke through the doors of one of these clinics, with the promise of complete anonymity being the only thing keeping the latter from teleporting away in less than a heartbeat. They might be adults now, but that doesn't make what they've been through any less terrible or difficult to forget.)

Sakura and Shizune, as co-heads of the hospitals in Konoha, revolutionize the medical field along with medical ninjas from other villages. They find new ways to help the disabled and the terminally ill through advancing technology and chakra techniques, and disseminate this knowledge throughout the entire continent. 

Medical ninjutsu becomes a curriculum requirement for students attending the Ninja Academy. More hospitals and clinics are opened everywhere in the elemental nations, and more doctors and nurses — whether they can use chakra or not — are trained. 

This technological revolution extends beyond medicine. Karin finds her passion in coming up with increasingly outlandish devices meant for purposes that are dubious at best. Simultaneously, however, new applications for chakra are discovered, researched, and developed at an astounding rate.

Extended chakra applications garner enough interest to earn a place in the Academy as well. In spite of backlash against "changing too much and losing the essence of shinobi" and outcries to "preserve the old ways", it seems inevitable that someday there will be more people using chakra for powering light bulbs or hydroelectric dams than for murder. 

 

* * *

 

Naruto is inaugurated as the Sixth Hokage on his twenty fifth birthday. He forms a new council, except this one is bigger and isn’t occupied only by paranoid old geezers who are jaded by war and believe that murder is the universal solution to all of life's problems. Upon its formation the members hold a variety of positions in the village: Sasuke and Shikamaru as Naruto's top advisers, Sakura and Shizune as heads of the hospitals, Karin as head of Research and Development, Iruka as Headmaster of the Academy, Kakashi as head of the new police force — a combination of what used to be Torture and Interrogation and ANBU, since both are rather vestigial in the absence of war — as well as representatives of major clans and civilians. 

The Hokage still technically has a lot of influence over how these people are appointed, but Naruto, Sasuke and Shikamaru have plans for a more democratic route in the future. The main idea is to share political power more equally across the village regardless of power, age, and status. Konoha of the past was essentially a military dictatorship — the right to determine the fate of the entire village laid in the hands of a few individuals with the greatest strength and the most experience. That isn't going to change overnight, but at the very least the decision making process can be made to be more inclusive of the majority of the population.

On an international scale, the five major villages started tentatively sharing information after the war. Five Kage Summits began occurring with increasing frequency. After Danzo's secrets were revealed in Konoha, Tsunade spent most of the meetings passively-aggressively — mostly aggressively — suggesting that the other Kage start looking for their own Danzo’s and Homura’s and Koharu’s. After several lengthy investigations all of them — surprise, surprise — found a lot of filth to clean up.

By the time Naruto becomes Hokage the Summits take place less often, but have expanded to involve smaller shinobi villages as well as representatives of civilian populations. They’re now called Continental Summits instead. Part of their job is to handle mission requests as a collective so that villages don't unknowingly get caught on opposing sides of a disagreement. They also take action against dangerous factions who want to take advantage of the villages' relative inactivity on the war front for their own sinister ends. 

When discussing foreign aid the alliance pays special attention to Ame, who is understandably volatile at first, but Naruto is a force of nature no one can resist for long. Two years after his first meeting with the village's new leader, the village has a steady income from its many businesses and its citizens are slowly but gradually lifting themselves above the poverty line. Where the village's geographic location made it the victim of destruction in times of conflict, it brings in plenty of revenue from travellers in times of placidity.

Trade agreements are either drafted or reinforced, mostly as incentive to reduce discord between trade partners. As a result, travel between countries is now encouraged. The concept of ninjas staying in their own villages for life slowly grows outdated.

Loyalty to one's village is still highly valued, but rogue ninjas are no longer as condemned as they once were. In Konoha, those who want to leave may leave, provided they swear an oath to never use their knowledge of the village against it. It turns out most rogue ninjas were forced out of their villages in the first place — like Kakuzu was when he was punished by Taki for failing an impossible mission — so Konoha's policy is one that other villages begin to adopt as well, if only to avoid the creation of another Akatsuki. 

The bingo book gets thinner and thinner every year. The combined might of the five villages is nothing to sneeze at, after all. A wave of disgruntled bounty hunters becomes something of a brief annoyance, but that too is swiftly and efficiently dealt with. 

The alliance is reaching for a kinder world, yes, but no one has any illusions that change is kind to everyone. As the flow of information and cultural exchange increases, so do clashes of philosophies, traditions, and beliefs. Coexistence — between each village, between ninjas and civilians — is a delicate balancing act between sharing too much and sharing too little. 

It isn't perfect. The best they can do is extend as many hands as possible outwards, and hope that those on the receiving end meet them halfway. 

 

* * *

 

Change is tedious, and people are idiots. 

Sasuke sits in the Fire Daimyo's dining hall and watches this toxic gasbag of a human being spew food across the table as he rambles on about how difficult it is to collect taxes from citizens who don't have anything to pay him with. He counts thirty six times in the last two hours that he's contemplated pressing a chopstick against the man's carotid, and keep pressing until he gets what he came for. 

He doesn't. Naruto would be pissed, and Sasuke likes to think he's better than that these days. 

Even so. Changing things the slow way — Naruto's way — is  _tiring_. It's inefficient. Some people just don't listen, and Sasuke's never had much patience for negotiating with imbeciles. His teenage self would have been appalled to see him in this situation. Teenage-Sasuke would have gutted himself before he stepped through the door. 

At least no one can say he didn't try. He's spent three days here already, and this is his fourth visit in as many months. The Daimyo is the one who won't budge. 

Good riddance, then, since this time Sasuke isn't really here to talk anyway. He's here to help the decrepit old man's granddaughter take his place. This time tomorrow he'll be carted off to a modest estate in the outskirts of the country, where some poor bastard will take care of him until his body finally withers away to join his brain.

After that, he won't have to worry about collecting idiotic amounts of "donations" anymore. No one will.  

The self-absorbed waste of space starts whining about the youth being too uneducated to show respect to their elders these days. He's so glad Sasuke isn't one of them. 

Sasuke noiselessly sips his tea and wonders if Itachi would be proud of him now. 

 

* * *

 

It takes Sasuke several agonizing years to come to terms with the fact that Itachi wasn't an infallible hero. He was a child, lost, cornered, driven to madness by love, and he did awful, unforgivable things.

It takes him a bit longer to accept that he still loves his brother ferociously in spite of it, and even longer still to finally see that his death wasn't his fault. Sasuke doesn't think he'll ever not regret it, but — 

Itachi wanted to die. That he wanted it to happen by his little brother's hand was unfair and cruel. That he embraced death to run from whatever he so desperately wanted to escape was surely a mark of cowardice.

(They are brothers, after all.)

It doesn't make his absence any easier to bear. Sasuke never quite manages to stop flinching every time he glances at a mirror when his hair is tied a certain way. But Itachi was dying long before Sasuke got to him, in a way that had nothing to do with the illness corroding his body. The only aspect of the past that can be altered is the way one feels about it. 

So Sasuke holds his brother in his heart, and moves on.

 

* * *

 

Rebuilding after the war takes years, so it takes even longer for anyone to get together and make or adopt children. Shikamaru and Temari, believe it or not, are the first. Ino and Chouji genuinely didn’t think he would make a move for another decade.

Ino also would have bet good money against him, of all people, becoming one half of a baby making machine.  _Five kids_. What the hell. Shikamaru practically lives in the Hokage tower and Temari is still an active ninja — the primary liaison between Konoha and Suna, in fact — and no one has any fucking clue how either of them have the  _time._

Sakura and Ino get married some time after their jobs finally become less hectic — Ino is second in command of the police force — but they’d been together for a while before that. They end up adopting a twelve year old girl — old enough to act stubbornly and convincingly brave, but young enough for that act to fall a tad short. It brings back memories of certain former teammates.

Everyone else mostly gets married to people they meet after the war, if they get married at all. Gaara is fully content with not having a spouse or children of his own — he’s too busy spoiling his nieces and nephews rotten against his sister's half-hearted protests. 

 

* * *

 

About two years after Naruto becomes Hokage, on the day Sasuke’s supposed to return from a trip to Kumo, he paints “SASUKE PLS MARRY ME” over the Hokage monument. The entire day people are torn between finding this really fucking funny and feeling really bad for Sasuke. Sakura has to call in sick because she walks out the door that morning, looks up, and starts laughing so hard she can’t get herself off the porch.

Sasuke comes back to poorly disguised snickering and sympathetic glances and just when he’s about to grab someone and ask, he  _sees it._

By the time he finds Naruto at Ichiraku his eye is twitching and his face is tomato red. Bystanders are trailing behind him and gathering around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the shitshow that is Naruto and Sasuke’s love life. In place of sweeping romantic gestures and declarations, Sasuke just  _lariats Naruto across the village._

(Sasuke didn't steal that move from A. A is the one who taught it to him, willingly, believe it or not. When the older man finds out what he used it for he roars with laughter for three minutes straight.)

It truly speaks to the state of their relationship, and their village in general, that no one bats an eye at the sight of their Hokage sailing across the sky. 

Naruto isn't hurt, of course. When Sasuke catches up to him in one of the training grounds half a minute later he cuts off Naruto’s whining — "Jeez Sasuke if you wanted to get me alone you could have just  _asked"_  — by pinning him against a tree and kissing him breathless.

When he finally breaks away, their lips are pink and swollen and their hair resemble birds' nests, and Sasuke rasps, “Okay.”

Naruto’s a little dazed so he just swallows and gasps, “Heh?”

“I’ll marry you.”

Naruto's breath hitches, and then he blinks, and blinks again. And then he smiles, and laughs, and tackles Sasuke to the forest floor, whooping with joy as they go down. 

Later that night, after spending a very long period of time in their bedroom, Naruto skips to the top of the Hokage tower and hollers at the top of his lungs: “HE SAID YES!!!”

Half the village immediately bursts into cheering and wolf whistles, drowning out Sasuke screeching at Naruto from behind to “stop this  _immediately usuratonkachi I swear to fucking god —_ ”

Neither of them give half a rat's ass about formal ceremonies. They sign the forms and then they blow a lot of money getting drunk with the entire village — plus their friends from other villages — instead. They keep their own last names, because their feelings for each other don't deter Sasuke's love for his clan or Naruto's love for his mother. They don't get rings, but they do get matching necklaces: a gold chain for Naruto and silver for Sasuke, and the pendant is a black crescent nestled inside a white circle.

They exchange vows one night, curled up in bed facing each other. It isn’t planned. Everyone seems to think it’s a shame they never bother with a flashy wedding, so this is their way of playfully acting one out.

Naruto isn’t the most eloquent person. As he speaks his feelings present themselves in the way he looks at Sasuke like he’s the only thing he can see, the way he grasps his hands, the way he stutters over every other sentence. Sasuke, though, churns out a literal poem. It’s short and succinct and not at all flowery, and the entire time his face is a little pinched and he kind of looks like he wants to die. But somewhere in the middle he says, “I’m going to make you the happiest man on earth.”

(Again. Sasuke doesn't do anything by halves.)

By the end of it Naruto is bawling, which makes Sasuke tear up, which makes Naruto cry even harder, and on it goes in a positive feedback loop of snot and tears.

They adopt two kids — a seven year old boy and then a four year old girl, both orphans borne out of violence — and they shower them with all the love they can muster, because Naruto has never forgotten what it’s like to be neglected and abused, and Sasuke remembers what it’s like to feel invisible, a constant disappointment.

They make their old genin teams babysit when they're both out of the village. One time they hand the job over to Kakashi out of sheer desperation, and then they make him their primary babysitter, entirely out of spite. Coming back to the sight of their old teacher being harassed by two rambunctious children — who call him  _grandpa_  — in his own office makes them all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

The children are regular faces at the Hokage tower. No one complains, ever. 

One of their favourite family traditions is visiting the orphanage as often as school and work allows. Sasuke is still its director, and the kids are siblings in all the ways that matter. Separating them would be akin to getting Sasuke to shave his head.

Their other favourite family tradition is vandalizing the Hokage monument together. Well, Naruto and the kids vandalize the monument — Sasuke has an image to uphold, so he mostly stands there trying to look disapproving while handing each of the kids a bucket of paint and a paintbrush. And then he listens to people begging him to “please stop letting your family paint pictures of excrement on the faces of this village’s esteemed leaders” as he takes another photo of one of the kids smearing a giant mustache across monument-Tobirama’s upper lip.

And then they adopt three more cats. It's Sasuke's idea. For the kids. 

 

* * *

 

Sasuke once said to Naruto that the essence of shinobi is perhaps their faith — their ability to carry the will of those who came before them and pass it along, until one day they are able to surmount even the insurmountable.

(Naruto didn't miss the way Sasuke's eyes lingered on him as he spoke.)

As if adhering to a prophecy, the relationships established between villages following the Fourth Shinobi War lay the foundation for the union of all five elemental nations, years down the road — in a time where the Kage are no longer symbols of absolute power, but of harmony.

Naruto and Sasuke's names become tied to a legacy that, against all odds, reaches and  _resonates_  with every shinobi across the continent, because they showed that it is possible to repair what once was thought to be irrevocably broken. Despite once facing each other as enemies across a chasm that spanned centuries and lifetimes, they are now partners, facing the future side by side. 

They become legendary in this way: the two who changed fate, and in the aftermath, swept the rest of the world along with them.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you think the last bit about the kids is me knocking on borititto then you are entirely right my friends


End file.
